


A Guardian Angel

by story_telling_sage



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angry Dean, Gen, Hell Trauma, Hurt Sam, Protective Castiel, Sam is actually way beyond hurt, Sam is not okay
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-15
Updated: 2016-01-18
Packaged: 2018-05-06 20:36:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5429984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/story_telling_sage/pseuds/story_telling_sage
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam is returned from the makeshift cage and might be damaged beyond repair. But Cas doesn't care. He just wants to keep the youngest Winchester safe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Semira](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Semira/gifts).



> Hi everyone. This is the first part in what might turn out to be a series about Sam after he's rescued from the cage once again. Please leaves comments below if you can take the time! 
> 
> Inspired by this (http://semirahrose.tumblr.com/post/134904815468/prayers-cant-really-break-through-limbo-through) ficlet by the amazing Semira.

Dean is in the bunker, trying to summon Crowley. Trying to pray to Cas. See if Cas is right. Hoping Cas is wrong. Sam. The Cage. _No_.

 

He's pacing the well-worn floor of the bunker back and forth when Cas walks in the door. Dean is ready to snap something about "what took you do long" but the words die in his throat because Sam is laying in Cas' arms and Sammy looks like he's dead except for the way his body is shaking relentlessly and the way his mouth is moving but no sound seems to be coming out.

 

Dean rushes forward but at a touch that isn't Cas', at the murmur of "Sammy," Sam starts to scream. 

 

"Olani nanaeel ipamis gohvs noib! Olani gemeganza ipamis! Nidali! Nidali!”

 

Just the sheer force of his Sam's desperation is almost enough to make Dean crumble. The look of horror in his sunken eyes as he tries to scramble out of Cas's arms is even worse.

 

Dean would rather be shot than listen to his brother say, "No. You're not real. Not real. No."  
But Dean doesn't get that choice. He just has to watch as Sam backs himself into a corner, laughing hysterically, brokenly, muttering about the real and unreal and Dean has to  
wonder if his brother is really gone this time.

 

He has to wonder how Sam can make it back to reality after all of this. After the Trials... Gadreel... The Mark... What Dean said and did... And now this. Lucifer. The Cage. Again. Sam had been so unbreakable, always bouncing back after everything. But now there was just this: Sam, staring out of unblinking eyes in horror at what he thought must be just another Lucifer-induced torture technique. Just Sam with his broken brain and untrustworthy eyes. Dean wishes there was something he could do. Cas could do. Anything.  
But there's not.

 

So Dean does what he does best and goes to find answers in the form of a red headed witch and the king of hell.

 

But Cas won't leave. What's done is done. There are no answers more important than taking care of Sam right now. Nothing in the world was more important than trying to fix this broken boy.

 

It takes a long time for the angel to slowly approach Sam. The first time he moves forward Sam starts shouting again. But Castiel is patient. He is an angel of The Lord. He's been alive for as long as the earth itself. A few more hours is nothing. Eventually Cas is able to get close enough to touch the youngest Winchester and even though Sam flinches at the touch he seems too tired to fight. He still keeps up his murmurs of "nidali" at a steady pace.

 

Castiel recognizes the language of his brethren and that hurts more than he can say. That Sam would be tortured with his mother tongue… Cas remembered Sam after the cage, he remembered talking Sam out of a panic when he’d revert to the only language he had heard for almost 2,000 years. He remembered this and it hurt with painful clarity.

 

This boy never gives up. Sam must have spent at least several years in the cage this time even if it was only a few days in earth time. His body shows it, it shows in the way that he's stick thin and hurting. Every part of him felt fragile and breakable. He can see it in Sam’s face, in his eyes, in every part of him. But most of all in his soul.

 

Sam's soul is still so bright even though it's wearing so thin. It's fractured and cracked and still shinning. Still radiating light, a desperate glow. Still living. After all of this, some part of Sam was still fighting. Cas felt a strange mixture of awe and pity. Part of him wishes Sam would just let go. A gentle rest in heaven is what he deserves. Cas would carry that burning soul Upstairs himself. But Sam was a soldier down to his very bones (and part of that made the angel want to weep, this boy soldier just a pawn in their games, his games, God's game) and he refused to give up.

 

And if Sam is not willing to give up, Castiel will not either.

 

Cas brought Sam to his bedroom and laid him down, hoping the familiar room might bring him back at least a little. If it did, Sam didn't show it. He just curled around himself, protecting himself, and didn't move. Cas draped a blanket over Sam, his body was still freezing cold. He wondered if it might be a permeate after affect this time. He hoped it wouldn't. He hoped nothing would remain of his stay in the makeshift cage. But Cas wasn't that naive. He still remembered the nightmares he had when he was human. He still remembered that feeling of sickness that washed over him as Sam’s strangled prayer reached out.

 

Sam didn’t move for the next several hours. His breathing was reasonable steady, given everything, and Cas knew that all his physical wounds were fine. But Sam was more than just a body, no matter how many times people had treated Sam like nothing but a placeholder, a puppet, something useful rather than something so very important, so very human, so very loved.

 

Cas didn’t know what was going on in Sam’s mind. He didn’t know if he could still hear Lucifer or see him, if Sam did he didn’t react. He just stayed oh so perfectly still like he was a concrete statue. Like if he moved all of this would disappear and Sam would be nothing more than Lucifer’s plaything. His bunk buddy.

 

Cas felt his hand tighten around the chair until his knuckles turned white at the thought of what his once brother did to Sam Winchester.

 

But Cas tried to let his anger go. His anger would be no use to Sam right now. He could be angry later. Right now he just needed to be there for Sam, even if Sam didn’t realize it. If Cas could help it he was never going to leave the youngest Winchester’s side again. Sam needed something to hold onto.

 

Something more than a scar to dig into when reality failed him once again.

 

More than false words and a shaky smile.

 

More than a man that loved his little brother, but not the person before him.

 

Sam needed something more than that. He deserved something more.

 

A familiar presence.

 

A guardian angel.


	2. A Visit from a Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sully comes to visit Sam. Guilt and screaming ensues.

Cas isn’t aware of time passing, he’s only aware of Sam. He still hasn’t moved, barely made a sound. Cas just sits there and waits. What he’s waiting for, Castiel isn’t sure.

 

Dean never comes in to check on Sam and Cas tries to understand. He tries to understand why answers are more important than Sam. But he doesn’t. He _can’t_. And eventually he stops trying.

 

He doesn’t know how long he sits in the silent dark room before a noise interrupts them. The soft noise of someone appearing without movement or notice that caused Cas to jump to his feet, angel blade in hand, protective scowl in place.

 

Looking back at Cas was a pair of brown eyes filled to the brim with sadness Cas almost stows that blade. Almost.

 

The man standing before Cas – if he really was a man at all – wasn’t really in the best fighting condition, several pounds overweight and every edge of him soft and rounded. Cas took in every inch of him, from the dirty white t-shirt to the rainbow suspenders.

 

“You must be Cas,” the man says in a boyish voice. Part of Cas knows how well Sam has this room guarded. The only angel allowed inside is Castiel. Cas tries to believe that this man isn’t evil, this man doesn’t mean Sam harm, but he won’t.

 

He thought Sam would be safe before. He thought Dean would keep him safe. He was wrong. So wrong. He doesn't blame Dean. He doesn't. But seeing Sam like this hurts and he never, _ever_ wants something to hurt his friend every again.

 

“I’m Sully,” the man says again, tearing his eyes away from Sam to look at the angel. “I’m Sam’s friend. I’m a Xana. We… we’re friends. Best friends. Did… did he- what happened?”

 

Cas recognizes the man now from Sam’s childhood now. The boy had been watched since he was six months old, his life planned out for him by forces above his control. The angels had not been thrilled by such a positive, powerful force in Sam’s life. Cas feels nothing but guilty for his brothers’ intentions now. Sam needed this man. He still does.

 

There is such pure anguish in Sully’s voice that Cas would easily gave up his silence, but didn’t expect to feel an obstruction in his throat at the thought of what had been done to Sam. He didn’t expect to feel this human, this raw.

 

“The cage happened. Lucifer happened. He sacrificed himself again. And again. And again. We weren’t there for him is what happened,” Cas says, guilt thick in his voice as the story spills from his lips. The Xana goes pale and then paler still as Castiel explains.

 

Sam had been in hell for almost 2,000 years and he had willingly gone back for the sake of the Earth. Because he thought this _was his fault_. It wasn’t it wasn’t it wasn’t.

 

“I… I told him to… I never should have…” Sully chokes out, now sitting on the edge of the bed next to Sam. At the disturbance of weight Sam rolls off the bed and backs himself into a corner, his eyes wide and unseeing and _scared_.

 

“Nidali! Olani gemeganza ipamis! Nidali!” Sam screams.

 

_No! I will not! No!_ It breaks Cas’ heart.

 

“Ol g-chis-ge nia-cod, ol g-chis-ge hoath, ol g-chis-ge virg,” Castiel assures, trying to bring Sam back from the edge with promises. He is safe, he is loved, he is home, Castiel promises over and over again, a steady rhythm under Sam’s anguished screams.

 

Eventually Sam goes quiet again, his body forcing itself to shut down and sleep. Cas had almost forgotten about Sully until he hears the man stifled, horrified sobs.

 

“Sam… I am so sorry…”

 

With that the Xana is gone again and Cas feels so much more alone.

 

“Ol g-chis-ge nia-cod, ol g-chis-ge hoath, ol g-chis-ge virg,” Castiel says again, hoping one day that Sam will believe him.


End file.
